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Hi all!
I am pretty excited. I got a new amp today. Its a (if you read the title of my post you should know) Peavey Deuce VT.
It is a 2x12 OLD HYBRID amp. Very opposite of my Marshall AVT20 (tube pre, solid state out) This has a solid state pre and a tube out. It runs on 4 6L6's.
It is loud and proud, and I love it. I traded 2 sub-par guitars and a 15 watt crate amp for it, so it wasnt a very big hit (gear wise) for me. It has an odd ocillator circuit that when coupled with another knob can produce a chorus/phaser/trem effect.
It is also different due to the fact that instead of having dedicated channels, it has 4 different inputs which can be added together in different combinations...very similar to an effects loop, but not really the same. The only thing I dont have for it is the footswitch, but Im working on that.
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That is a really nifty amp. The four inputs intrigue me. It sounds like you could have some really interesting combinations.
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I know you can record... I want to hear it!
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Originally Posted by Skeeter That is a really nifty amp. The four inputs intrigue me. It sounds like you could have some really interesting combinations. reminds me of an older marshall model I've seen... .
Is there only one EQ?
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good luck taming that beast. i believe that the Deuce runs about 120W and with an SS pre-amp is considered one of the cleanest amps built...it's really designed to get that Fender Twin sort of thing going on...ridiculously clean cleans.
at least that's my understanding of it.
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Yes indeed...that is also my understanding (twiddles fingers a'la Mr Burns).
Like I said, (besides my small peavey) the other amp I have is a marshall AVT20. I started out honestly just looking for an extension cab for that. It has very good sound, and everybody I talked to about it said that it could drive a cab very very well. Well, I didnt want to get anything bad, but I did want something that looked cool. At my first pawn shop stop I saw one of those Marshall Micro-Stacks (15 watt head and 2 1x10 cabs). Everything I have read about those is that they look cool, and thats about it...no great sound...no great volume. My plan was to get that, change the speaker to a celesetion or eminence. It would be perfect. The only small extension cab marshall offers is a 1x12...I even tested out the size and it fit perfectly (even had the grooves for my current amps feet). BUT they wanted 300 bucks....Thats the price new.
As I drove I started to think. "Ive got 3 peices of gear and 120 bucks cash to spend. Do I really want to spend/trade ALL this for a less than mediocre amp only to use it in a gimmicky fashion? Why not get something ALOT nicer, whether it be a guitar (A mex. tele) or a heck of alot nicer amp" Thats when I got excited. Everywhere I stopped only had cruddy and overpriced gear.
Then I found this baby. I called the wife to let me know that I was thinking about adopting a new child. She was OK with it. I probably played the amp 30-45 minutes through 3 or 4 different guitars, switching to other amps just so I could have fresh ears on the amp. We haggled and haggled, but in the end it came out alright. I departed with a hondo h76 strat copy, a small 15 watt crate amp and a Strat style Epiphone w/cheap floyd rose trem, and most of my cash. It was also marked 300. They would not budge on the price of the marshall at the first shop, but with much haggling, I brought the price down to 225. Now, I know I got hosed pretty much on the trade in of equipment (you usually do). They gave me 75 for the epi, and 40 for the hondo and crate together.
It was well worth it.
Casey. It has 2 sets of EQ's. One for each channel
The knobs appear like this:
Normal: Pre, Low, Hi and Out (reverb)
Effect: Pre, Low, Mid, Hi, Out [Color, Rate] (reverb)
Reverb effects both channels the same(in theory) This knob is shot I believe. The more I turn it up, the more static I get and I hear no reverb. Its a very noisy pot, and at 10 there is no sound coming out of the amp.
For the inputs there is: Normal, Automix, EffectA, EffectB
The normal just controls the Normal channel,
Below it is the AutoMix, and this takes your Normal and blends it with the effect. The (color) and (rate) knobs go together. Like I said above there is a ocillator circuit that can produce a variety of sounds...I havent played with it too much because I dont know how much I will use it, but the rate determines the rate of the effect (obviously) but the color knob dials in that sound and produces a variety of different effects (chorus, trem, phaser)
Then there is Effect A and Effect B inputs. As far as I can tell they do the same thing at the moment...it simply uses the effect channel.
It also appears to have 4 very new GrooveTubes tubes in it...all matched
I do not have the special footswitch, so I can not really utilize everything together (yet).
Sorry for all the info, most of you probably dont care, but I do, and some might.
Also..If anybody has any ideas on the reverb problem, Id be glad hear it. Ill get a clip of it asap (either by itself or with other stuff)
-Jeff
Answer:
Originally Posted by thesteve good luck taming that beast. i believe that the Deuce runs about 120W and with an SS pre-amp is considered one of the cleanest amps built...it's really designed to get that Fender Twin sort of thing going on...ridiculously clean cleans.
at least that's my understanding of it.
Unfortunately they tend to be rediculously dark and muddy sounding.
My first "real" amplifiers were a Peavey Mace (160watt rms) and Peavey Deuce (120 watt rms).
I was a Skynyrd fan to the hilt so I wanted the amps they used. After owning them for a while I really discovered their shortcomings; heavy weight, dark sound, known to smoke internal components at will.
On the plus side of the old VT/VTX/VTM series of Peavey amps is sheer volume. Regardless of what one thinks of the sound they produce, there's a lot of it on tap (especially with the Mace).
Allegedly there are a lot of mods for those things which will brighten them up a bit and improve their reliability. Ya may want to search around for them if you're not pleased with the sound and like to tinker.
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eh STEVE!
Dave...your right about the weight. I know its heavier than my Crate BX 100, which is about 70 pounds. It does have casters on it (I dont know how old they are, but I thought they were stock...I was wrong. I like its sound, although I havent really been able to crank it all the way (I probably will never need to though)
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I have a VT Classic 2-12 that my wife uses for keyboards. IT sounds pretty good and can get decent volume without distorting or breaking up. I have had to retube it once in 8 yrs.
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For the reverb problem - being an older amp, it may just be the connections between the amp and the reverb tank are oxidized. The tank is probably in a vinyl bag in the bottom of the cab. Take it out, and pull the RCA connectors out and stick 'em back in a couple times, rotate them back and forth a little too. Also do that with 'em where they are connected into the amp. At the amp end, it may be a 4 pin connector. If they are RCA connectors at both ends, and the above doesn't work, you could try some new cables - just borrow a couple from your stereo. Also try rotating the knob back and forth several times to see if that changes it - if so, you may need to clean the pot. Being that old, it may need all the pots cleaned. While you have the tank out, make sure the springs are connected at both ends, and make sure the small gauge wire leads to the transducers on each end are connected - I have seen those fall off before, and need to be resoldered.
I also had a Peavey Mace head back in the day (although not because of any Skynyrd connection, didn't know about that until recently ). Rated at 180 watts output, it had 6) 6L6 output tubes. I used mine with EV SRO speakers. I don't remember it sounding dark like GtrDave said, maybe that was the combo version (?) and due to the speaker? Peavey did use some pretty bad speakers in their early years. I was also using strats with it. As I remember, it had a Fendery clean tone, the SS OD wasn't too bad at low settings, but not so good at higher gain settings. It had the ability to cascade the two preamp channels (in series) - that sounded pretty bad. That was a long time ago...
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Im scouting out some footswitches on ebay (20-50 bucks), and plan on getting one (someday). I usually work for a wedding photographer on the weekends, and my wife lets me use some of that money for gear...The guy is getting burnt out on weddings and taking a break so we havent had a wedding since november...I love not being busy on saturday nights, but its things like this that make me wish I was busy.
Ill play with the reverb when I get home from work. I dont recall seeing a cable at all for the reverb, but I havent really gotten down and dirty with the innerds of the amp yet.
This thing is a monster compared to my 1x10 combo.
The speakers sound pretty good to my ears. I dont think they are a special speaker, but I dont have any way of knowing. There are no markings or anything on them (which makes me believe they are stock).
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Tom..
Ive been messing with this reverb and this is what ive found out. (sorry I dont have pics). It is in a poutch, but its got 2 sets of wires that go into the reverb unit but look very simlar to volume pots (a flat washer shaped board with 2 cables soldered on to it). It connects to the amp through what looks similar to a computers HDD or CD power plug (flat plug w/4 holes)...all the connections seem to be clean. The reverb unit also seems to be in good shape.
It still doesnt work though.
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Originally Posted by RipVanWinkle Tom..
Ive been messing with this reverb and this is what ive found out. (sorry I dont have pics). It is in a poutch, but its got 2 sets of wires that go into the reverb unit but look very simlar to volume pots (a flat washer shaped board with 2 cables soldered on to it). It connects to the amp through what looks similar to a computers HDD or CD power plug (flat plug w/4 holes)...all the connections seem to be clean. The reverb unit also seems to be in good shape.
It still doesnt work though.
I do remember my reverb unit dying suddenly. I'm almost certain that the small transformer was shot so I replaced the unit with another generic one...worked fine after that.
I also replaced the stock speakers (one of which is now in my Classic 20) w/ Peavey Scorpion speakers. The overall amp sound got brighter but I never ever remember a Fendery-clean sound...even after a re-tube and other clean-up...my friend's dad had a genuine silverface Twin and I used to wish that my Mace sounded half as clean and bright as that.
I did dig that built-in phase shifter in the Mace (Listen to "Tuesday's Gone" from Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'One more from the road' live record and you'll hear that amp w/ the phaser turned on) although I still think it didn't compare to even a Phase 90 at the time.
I'm sorry but, having owned a few of them (Mace, Deuce, VTM120, maybe another...), I just don't have fond memories of the Peavey hybrid amps. It's amazing that the same company that produces the beautiful-for-the-money Classic series (20, 30, 50, Delta Blues) also built those 6L6-powered boat anchors.
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Originally Posted by RipVanWinkle Tom..
Ive been messing with this reverb and this is what ive found out. (sorry I dont have pics). It is in a poutch, but its got 2 sets of wires that go into the reverb unit but look very simlar to volume pots (a flat washer shaped board with 2 cables soldered on to it). It connects to the amp through what looks similar to a computers HDD or CD power plug (flat plug w/4 holes)...all the connections seem to be clean. The reverb unit also seems to be in good shape.
It still doesnt work though.
Ok - is that round pot looking thing a solder terminal or a round connector? Did you look inside to make sure the wires are still soldered onto the transducers, and that one hasn't broken away? Its a very small gauge wire, and because of the floating plate they are mounted on, and how it gets bounced around, its not unusual for them to break off over time. If you have a multimeter you can check for continuity across the transducers, they are just a small coil, probably a couple hundred or couple thousand ohms. If you don't get a low resistance reading across one of them, its bad and the tank (or the tranny) needs replaced. You could also look inside the amp chassis, make sure that the reverb pot doesn't have a broken solder joint - it could have taken a hit or been replaced by an amateur, or? Other than that it could be a component in the reverb circuitry... my guess though would be the tank is the most likely suspect.
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Originally Posted by gtrdave I do remember my reverb unit dying suddenly. I'm almost certain that the small transformer was shot so I replaced the unit with another generic one...worked fine after that.
I also replaced the stock speakers (one of which is now in my Classic 20) w/ Peavey Scorpion speakers. The overall amp sound got brighter but I never ever remember a Fendery-clean sound...even after a re-tube and other clean-up...my friend's dad had a genuine silverface Twin and I used to wish that my Mace sounded half as clean and bright as that.
I did dig that built-in phase shifter in the Mace (Listen to "Tuesday's Gone" from Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'One more from the road' live record and you'll hear that amp w/ the phaser turned on) although I still think it didn't compare to even a Phase 90 at the time.
I'm sorry but, having owned a few of them (Mace, Deuce, VTM120, maybe another...), I just don't have fond memories of the Peavey hybrid amps. It's amazing that the same company that produces the beautiful-for-the-money Classic series (20, 30, 50, Delta Blues) also built those 6L6-powered boat anchors.
Maybe there were a couple versions of the Mace ? - my memory may be a little fuzzy, but I know for sure that it did not have any kind of phase shifting effect.
So you dig the Scorpions for guitar? I have a couple - a guy gave me an old non-functioning Peavey Renoun 2x12 that had 2 of them in there, the amp had only been used at church, and had sat in there for like 15 years. I put one in a Bravo that I was modding, and I thought it sounded great. Not very efficient, but it has a nice tone with a bit of a midrange honk that I like, and something about the way the notes seem to pop out of it... I did use some paint to close up the holes in the mesh of the dust cover - I figured in my application it didn't need the cooling, and that it would put out a bit more sound and maybe more high end with a "solid" dust cap. One of them sounds great, the one time I fired up the other one, it doesn't sound as good, it has a lot less high end. I'll have to fire it up again one of these days - could have been a bad connection or maybe the mesh didn't get closed in as well...? I read once that Steve Morse uses Scorps in his rig.